Fix The Broken
by K-yers
Summary: Joanna is living in Los Angeles when this virus takes full effect. Matters get worse when she's separated from her mom and the military take control of the neighborhood. Surely this epidemic isn't going to take too long, right?
1. 1: The Bite

"...Some kind of flu virus going around, John. I'll tell ya, I'm seeing it happen first hand and it is not pretty."

"How on earth are you seeing it firsthand, Andy? You're not sick, are you? Hiding a box of Kleenex under your chair there?"

John the radio D.J let out a laugh that sounded like it came from his belly. "No, man, my wife's got it. Don't worry though; I've been carrying around hand sanitizer for the past few days!"

"Well, tell Anna we here at the station want her to get better." Andy the host of the morning radio show said, and the station's theme song started playing. Andy continued, "I took in the requests for this morning's top three songs and they'll be coming to you right here on 'Andy and John In The Morning'! Enjoy these ten minutes commercial free!" A new pop song I hadn't heard before started to play, and I ended up drumming my fingers along to it as I drove into my neighborhood.

The movie theater I worked at had pulled an all-nighter, playing a series of movies back-to-back until the whole series was finished. My theater does it about once every month, sometimes twice if the night proves to be popular. One of the employees, a peppy high schooler named Cathy, is trying to get the owner to do one of these nights every week. A few of my coworkers and I had scoffed at this, especially since Cathy herself wouldn't be the one to work those long shifts. Only employees over eighteen could work the shifts that went well into the morning.

I parked my car on the curb in front of my house, bringing my empty coffee cup and solitary doughnut in with me. One of the guys-Jacob-had taken a break around five and had returned with coffee and doughnuts for everyone. I walked the length of my front yard in a few strides and quickly unlocked the door to get in. Only when the door was closed, did I let out a loud sigh of tiredness.

Mom was already up and making breakfast for herself, which consisted of a bowl of fruit salad and a bottle of water. "How was it?" She asked me as I walked into the kitchen.

"Tiring." I replied, lifting my arms to stretch. "We showed the Lord of the Rings trilogy."

"I haven't seen those movies since you were little." Mom said thoughtfully. "Was it you or Jared who loved them more."

I snorted. "Definitely Jared; he named our cat Frodo, remember?" Mom laughed quietly, that sad expression on her face. I had grown used to this expression; she only got it whenever she thought about my older brother.

Jared had left the day after he turned eighteen. He had packed his bags in the dead of night, taken Frodo the cat, and had disappeared leaving only a goodbye note, telling my mom, dad, and me that he was off to get away from his parents. At the time, I hadn't fully understood why Jared had wanted to leave so badly. But then I had looked at my parents, and the answer smacked me hard in the face.

Mom had been very good at hiding the bruises, but after I had decided to pay close attention, I had noticed the black and purple splotches on her upper arms and shoulders. No wonder she had never worn short sleeves or tank tops. Now Mom and I were living in Los Angeles, leaving my dad to do whatever he wanted now.

I handed Mom the doughnut, getting the thoughts about Jared and Dad out of my head. That's when I noticed the tight bandage on Mom's arm. "What the hell is that?" I asked, pointing at it.

Mom gave me a hard look. "Language, young lady. You may be an adult, but you still live under my roof." She paused. "And for your information, a patient bit me last night."

"Is it infected?" I asked.

"I'm sure it's fine." Mom said dismissively. "I'll get it looked over when I get to the hospital, okay?" She turned to the stove to look at the digital clock there. "Speaking of which, if I don't leave soon, then I'll hit the worse part of traffic." She hurried around the kitchen counter and grabbed her purse. "I'll see you tonight, Jojo. Do you work tonight?"

"I'm off until tomorrow." I said, letting her kiss my cheek.

"Good; I'll stop by the store on my way home then. There's leftovers in the fridge if you want lunch."

"Thanks, Mom."

And with that, Mom turned around and walked out the door. I didn't think much of it except for that bite on her arm. She seemed to have a tired glow to her face so I assumed that was the 'd get the bite checked out though and it'd be gone in a few weeks.

I locked the front door behind Mom and went into my room, determined to go to bed. My shift last night had started around eleven, and the clock on my phone told me that it was just now seven. I entered my room and briefly took in the several posters from movies and T.V shows and bands; very little wall was actually left. Instead I had the faces of my favorites characters and celebrities looking back at me. I had two shelves side by side in here, both containing a vast amount of DVDs. I was a cinema junkie and I, despite the shrinking need to own physical copies of media, kept buying more for my collection. Among my top shelves were my favorites like _The Shining, A Clockwork Orange._ Jared had shown me the Stanley Kubrick movies back when we were younger and we were both traumatized into having nightmares, but it had been worth it.

I stripped out of my uniform that smelled of artificial popcorn and soda syrup and got into a pair of short shorts and an oversized tee shirt that probably needed to be washed soon. "I'll do that when I wake up." I promised myself, feeling the effects of coffee wear off as I crawled underneath my covers. I used the app on my phone to play the sound of a waterfall, and after about ten minutes of listening to it, I fell asleep.

* * *

My cell phone ringing woke me up from the dream I was having. In the dream, I had been playing trumpet really badly while a bunch of people I didn't know applauded. I blinked a few times before picking up the phone and seeing that Kara, a coworker of mine, was calling.

"Hello?" I answered in a groggy voice.

"Have you seen the news yet?" Kara's voice came out in a loud rush. "Look it up now! Some people are calling it a prank, some people are saying it's some new drug-" I hung up. I had learned long ago that Kara could talk for hours without stopping to take a breath. Without leaving my cocoon of blankets, I searched for the video that Kara had been yelling about.

When I found the video, I didn't really believe what I was seeing.

The man was getting shot at, and he kept getting back up. It wasn't until a cop fired at his head did the man finally fall still. I rewatched the video quite a few times, scanning to see if there was some sort of elaborate special effects going into this prank. That's all it could be, right?


	2. 2: The World Turned Upside Down

When Mom finally came home, she looked even worse than before.

That tired glow she had? It had turned into a pale and sweaty shine on her face. Her eyes had dark circles under them, and she had to go immediately to bed the second she got home. I didn't argue and just helped her get there. Mom muttered a barely audible thank you before passing out. I closed the door carefully as I left the room.

I reheated a few slices of pizza and ate while watching _Insidious._ Every so often I'd look away from the T.V to Mom's bedroom door right off the living room. I thought back to that bite on her arm; had that gotten infected? If so, then this was the fastest infection of a normal bite I had ever seen.

In the movie, Rose Byrne was wandering around the house while the tiptoe song played. I got up and headed for my Mom's door, opening the door slowly. The creepy music playing in the background didn't help my heightened sense of nervousness. Whenever I heard that song before, I just got a sense of unease, and this time was no different.

Mom was laying in her bed in the fetal position. I swallowed as I approached; she looked like she was sleeping. Her arm that had been bitten was laid out stretched, as if Mom had been stretching in her sleep. I got closer and felt the hair on the back of my neck stand up.

She had taken off the bandages and I got a full look at the bite. Deep imprints of human teeth were permanently stuck in my mother's flesh. Although the dark red blood had been cleaned away, I could see the faint red stains surrounding the teeth marks. I felt sick to my stomach as I stared at it. No wonder Mom felt sick; this bite was bound to get infected some how.

One of the many blares in the movie playing in the background sounded at high volume. I flinched at the sound and Mom jerked awake, the whites of her eyes perfectly visible. She started again when she saw me standing over her. "Joanna!" Mom gasped. "What are you doing?"

"I was just checking on you." I said, instantly backing off and making a move to leave the room. Mom didn't say anything, and when I turned back around at the doorway, I saw that she had fallen still. Her eyes were staring off into the distance and she was barely breathing. "Mom?" I quietly muttered. Mom blinked and turned, slowly and stiffly, away from the door. I took that as the signal to leave the room.

I was hoping that Mom would feel a bit better by the morning. But the next morning, as I got ready for work, I heard Mom coughing up a lung and wheezing. I tried to stay home with her to help take care of her, but she didn't want to hear a word of it.

"Go to work, Jojo." Mom said in a hushed voice. "I can take care of myself." I wanted to argue, but bit my tongue and locked the door behind me to go to work.

* * *

I worked the morning shift and got off around three. I had tried texting Mom during all of my breaks to check in on her, but none of the messages were going through. All of the signals were jammed. When I clocked out, I started to take the short cut downtown to get home.

"Andy and John In the Morning" wasn't playing on the way home. Their afternoon D.J was on her time slot, and she said something that made my hair stand up again.

"Poor Andy from our morning show got sick as of this morning." Wendy the D.J said. "Seems like he caught it from his wife. Hopefully, they both get better soon and we'll get half of our morning duo back." Wendy started playing an overplayed pop song, which I immediately switched to another station that was playing a commercial for credit card fraud.

It seemed to me that more and more people were getting sick. Was this a nationwide virus? I had never stopped to think about this disease, but now that more people were being effected, it was starting to look like being ignorant was asking to get sick.

Several cars in front of me were halted, forcing me to stop behind them. I put the car in park and stepped out, to try and get a better look at what was happening further down the street. As I opened my door, however, I ended up hitting someone.

"What the hell?" A boy's voice snapped. I got out of the car and started apologizing to the kid. He looked to be about sixteen with longish black hair and dark brown eyes. He was wearing a school uniform that I vaguely remembered from when my high school had played football against this private one in the football championship.

"So sorry," I said. The boy stared at me for a second, as if debating whether or not to accept the apology. But then he nodded and started to walk towards where everyone else was walking. "What's happening up there, do you know?" I called after him. He stopped walking and shrugged.

"No clue, but I'm not missing out on it!" He called back before going after the crowd. I smiled slightly at that logic and looked around to see people getting out of their cars to join the gathering crowd. Without thinking much about it, I reached into my car and grabbed my backpack before locking the door. With that, I followed the crowd, thinking that I'd double back for my car when the authorities showed up to direct traffic.

The crowd was gathered at the intersection in front of yellow tape. I joined the crowd and squeezed my way to the front, trying to get a good look at what was happening. A body bag was laying in the center of the intersection, with a few cops near it. Two cops were being shouted at by a group of men at the front of the crowd. There was a sharp nudge in my shoulder and I turned to see the kid I had hit with my car door.

The kid gave me a stiff nod, an awkward greeting considering I almost knocked him flat on his butt. He pulled out a video camera to start filming the scene unfolding in front of us.

"What are you doing?" I asked.

"The world's gonna need to see this!" He said with an air of confidence. He stuck out his free hand towards me. "Chris."

I shook his hand. "Jojo." Chris gave me a friendly smile and turned back to filming the scene. I felt an odd sort of admiration for this kid, who was completely ready to become a part of something. Chris and I were only standing next to each other for a minute when two people bumped into Chris, who ended up bumping into me.

"Sorry, miss," A man told me before turning to Chris. "Chris, we have to go home now!"

"What?" Chris shouted back at the man who I assumed was his dad. "I can't leave!"

"You're coming with us now!" Chris's dad said, sounding like he was trying hard to get his son to come with him.

The sounds of gunfire interrupted this family reunion and several people surrounding us either ducked from impending bullets or started running away. Chris's dad and a woman (his mom maybe) grabbed Chris and started to pull him away. Chris looked back at me and shouted my name, waving an arm for me to follow. I wanted to get away from the bullets, so I did.

The family ran down the street until Chris broke free of his parents and halted, looking back at me. "C'mon, Jojo!" He shouted. I caught up and met the gazes of the two parents facing me. Chris quickly said, "This is my friend, and these are my parents. Her car is blocked in by the others. She won't be able to get out of here."

Damn, this kid was smart. His parents both nodded at me and I joined the family as we started to try and get away from the growing riot behind us. But that was easier said than done, as the chaos we were trying to get away from just seemed to follow. In a few minutes time, the entire downtown area would be overtaken by rioters. I cursed myself for choosing to take the shortcut home. If I had gone the normal way, I would've been home by now.


	3. 3: The Barbershop

Travis ran straight towards a man closing up a barbershop. Liza pulled Chris along until they were right behind him; I just kind of hovered behind them. The people around us were beginning to riot. A group of young men were shaking a minivan violently for what looked like no reason, others already smashed into the windows of other stores and were tossing everyone inside around.

The man who owned the barbershop let us inside, though he looked pretty pissed about it. I was the last one to get inside and the owner gave me a glare as I passed him.

The inside of the barbershop was like the shop a grandpa would've gone to. I didn't say this out loud, because the owner was still glaring hard at everyone for coming inside. A woman came out from the back of the store, clutching a rosary and talking to her husband in rapid Spanish. I remembered learning a little bit of Spanish when I was younger, but I didn't know enough to talk fluently.

The family who owned the barbershop consisted of the man, wife, and daughter who looked to be close to my age. After the husband and daughter had a brief and heated Spanish conversation, the daughter introduced herself to us as Ofelia Salazar. "These are my parents, Daniel and Griselda. You can stay here as long as you need to." Daniel Salazar scoffed at this.

As soon as it was okay for me to do so, I walked to the corner of the room with my cell phone and dialed Mom's number. It rang about seven times before it went straight to voicemail. "Hey Mom," I said. I caught the eye of Liza, who looked up when I started talking on the phone. "I'm stuck downtown right now, but I'll be home soon. Please call me back when you get this." I hung up and started praying that Mom would be well enough to call em back.

Meanwhile, Travis wasn't having the same luck I had with calling people. He was trying to reach his girlfriend, a woman named Madison. But every time he tried, the lines were jammed. I offered him my phone, to see if he could reach her through there. Travis gave me a friendly nod before accepting my phone and dialing Madison's number for what must've been the dozenth time.

I sat down in one of the waiting chairs near Liza. Chris was trying to look between the cracks of the metal screen protecting the window. Travis was still pacing with my phone to his ear. Daniel had escorted his small family back to the back of the shop. From out here, I could hear Griselda praying loudly in Spanish.

"Your mom," Liza said from beside me. "Where is she right now?"

"At home." I said, but I paused. People all over the country right now were getting sick; no one knew if it was contagious or not. Should I tell them that Mom was sick? Even though the sickness was from a bite, surely this sickness across the country weren't all from bites. Liza was still looking at me, probably expecting me to explain. "She works at a hospital in town, and she told me earlier that she'd be able to get off early today."

Liza nodded. "Is she a nurse?"

"Yeah; she loves it."

"I'm working on becoming a nurse." Liza replied, giving me a ghost of a smile. Her eyes went down to my work uniform, which bore the logo of the theater. "We've gone there before. How long have you worked there?"

"Almost two years now." I said, feeling more relieved now that the conversation was steering away from my mom.

"You like it there?" Liza asked.

I nodded. "Oh yeah. The owners are really nice, and I'm friends with a lot of my coworkers. Not to mention we all get discounts on tickets and food."

"Seeing how expensive the food there gets, I imagine the discounts are welcome." Liza said with a small huff of laughter. I repeated the action, not really in the position to deny the undeniable truth of expensive movie theater food.

"Madison!" Travis exclaimed suddenly. Liza and I looked up as Travis began to speak hurriedly into the phone. "Madison-we're stuck downtown-we're stuck. We're gonna be late-Madison!" He cut himself off and hung up. He walked over and handed my phone back to me. "We're going home as soon as this riot clears up." He paused. "Jojo, where is your car parked?"

I struggled to remember the street name. "Um, I think it was Barker."

Travis blinked. "We'll drop you off at your house as soon as it's safe. Right now, your car is in the center of the riot." I thought about the damage that will befall my car there, and how expensive that'd be to fix. I silently cursed myself again for trying to take the shortcut home.

"Thank you for that." I told him. Travis smiled nicely and took the other side of Liza.

"This riot will be over before we know it." Travis said, almost to himself.

He said this a few times over the next two hours, as the sounds of rioting didn't stop or even slow down. I had slumped into a turning chair over by the mirrors, while the Salazars continued to try and ignore us. Every now and then, Daniel would show up to make sure we weren't messing anything up. At some point, I had put my feet up on the counter underneath the mirror, and Daniel had scolded me about it until my feet were far away from the counter top.

The rioters were showing no signs of letting up when Chris announced that the walls felt hot. Both Travis and I got up to feel the walls, and I found myself surprised when I felt the heat pulsing from the other side.

"We got to leave." Travis said, looking right at Daniel and his family. The barber tightened his jaw and gave Travis a stiff nod before turning tail and hurrying off to go get his wife and daughter. Liza rushed over to Chris to make sure he had everything while Travis checked out the world outside. I swallowed, mentally preparing myself for the mad dash we were about to take.

Daniel, Griselda, and Ofelia joined us again, ready to go. "Our truck is parked at the beginning of one hundred and second. We'll have to run there." Travis said. I nodded along with some of the others while Daniel got to the front of the group to unlock the door. I felt someone grab my arm and I turned to see Liza standing there, giving me a firm nod. A rush of appreciation came over me and I returned the nod.

Daniel unlocked the door and the second the door opened, rioters stormed in. One of them roughly shoved me into Liza and Chris, but Travis quickly herded us out of the door and into the street.

It was like something from a movie. People were everywhere, either breaking the windows of the stores, shaking cars until they tipped, or they were like us and trying to get away from the scene. Travis kept one of his hands on Liza, who was pulling both me and Chris after them. I looked over my should to the Salazar family, who were farther back but still managing to stay within sight.

Travis suddenly halted, causing the rest of us to run into him. I quickly followed his gaze, what had caused him to stop so suddenly. What I saw made my blood run cold, a phrase that I hadn't fully understood before.

There was a man on his knees, burying his face into the stomach of another man. The man on his knees lifted his head, his mouth dripping with blood as he tore a piece of the man away. Bile started to rise in my throat, but Liza started to pull me along again, forcing us all past the scene straight out of a horror film.


	4. 4: Dark City

Someone threw a radio set off of the top of the car and it shattered near our small group. Travis led the way underneath a set of pipe towers, where even more people were standing on and screaming and throwing stuff off of. I could see the blue and red flashes of police lights a little ways away, but I wasn't able to get a good look as we had to keep moving.

"It's just down here!" Travis shouted, moving even faster to the truck. I was starting to run out of breath already. I had never been particularly fit in the first place; I was a movie junkie who spent most of her free time either watching stuff or pacing around at work. That didn't leave a lot of room for physical activity.

We were just rushing down the stone steps towards the truck when we heard a deafening crash and piercing scream from behind us. I turned around to see Daniel and Ofelia struggling to help Griselda to her feet. Without thinking about the others, I ran towards the Salazar family, my breathlessness nearly forgotten.

The pipe tower had been tipped over and it had landed hard onto Griselda's foot. I joined Daniel by the fallen tower to try and help lift the structure. He gave me a brief glance before continuing to struggle and lift it. It wasn't until Travis and Chris joined us were we able to lift the structure off of Griselda. Liza and Ofelia dragged her out of the way and we dropped the pipe tower back on the ground.

Travis swept Griselda off the ground and started running again towards the truck. This time, Daniel stayed very close to the rest of the group, shouting at his weeping wife in rapid Spanish.

The truck that Travis had been talking about only had room inside for three people at the most. Travis and Chris got into the front and passenger seats, while everyone else climbed into the bed of the truck. Liza had crossed into nurse mode, yelling at Travis to take them to a hospital so that Griselda could get better treatment. Daniel was on Griselda's other side, stroking her forehead and whispering Spanish to her. Ofelia and I had no choice but to sit farther back from them.

The truck roared to life and jerked into movement. Travis ran over a curb trying to get us away from the rioting crowd. We started to speed away from the scene as we left the downtown area and into a more suburban area. We had to find the nearest hospital so that Griselda could get treatment, and Travis started towards the nearest one, the one that Mom worked at.

We had just made it to the hospital when we started to notice something weird about it. There was a sort of barricade of cops and cop cars blocking any entrance to it, and the officers themselves were in a firing position. One officer looked away from the hospital to our truck as we passed, unmasked fear in his face. I looked past the officer and over to the entrance of the hospital.

Someone was coming outside, wearing a hospital gown that blew in the breeze. I couldn't get a good look of the woman, but the cops started to fire their guns at her, and I couldn't turn away from the sight of the bullets hitting her, but not killing her. What the hell?

It took a bullet into the head for the woman to fall to her knees and die. I remembered that person who had been eating that man in the crowd. Were they both effected by the same thing? Was it a major coincidence? Travis pulled the truck away from the hospital and we started to drive towards Madison's house before either of my questions could be answered.

"Jojo," Travis said through the window separating the truck bed from the inside. I moved closer to listen to him. "We're stopping by Madison's first. We're planning on leaving tonight, so we'll stop there and when we leave, we'll drop you off at home, alright?"

"Thank you," I said, really meaning it. Travis nodded and briefly glanced at me with the rear view mirror. I slid back to my regular position in the truck bed and thanked my lucky stars for helping me find a nice enough family to take me home.

The drive to Madison's house was actually close to the drive I usually took home from work. I started to wonder what the odds would be if they ended up living in the same neighborhood as me, when a sudden lack of light made me turn my head towards the skyline of Los Angeles. About five city blocks had had all of the lights go out, and before I could blink, another five blocks went out.

There was an eerie hush over our group as we watched the city's bright lights go out, block by block. Goosebumps prickled down my arms uncomfortably; usually the city's lights were never out. It didn't matter what time it was, there was always lights on in buildings or on the streets. This massive amount of darkness was unsettling.

We weren't forced to stare out at the dark city for long. Travis made a left turn and entered a neighborhood. The idea of living in the same neighborhood as them left my mind; the entrance to my neighborhood wasn't for another fifteen minutes. The truck drove us a little ways more before Travis pulled into a driveway. The engine was cut off as Travis got out.

"I'll be right back; I'm going to go get Madison and the kids." Travis said before turning away and heading towards the house. However, Liza and Chris hurried after him to go get inside.

Daniel said something in Spanish that sounded bitter. I glanced at him but didn't say anything. Ofelia understood what her father said and gave him a heated look. Griselda was still in a vast amount of pain and looked like she wasn't paying attention.

The four of us were only sitting out in the truck bed for about a full minute when we heard someone start to scream from inside the house. Daniel said, "I'll be back." to Griselda and Ofelia before charging out of the truck. I stared at the house as more screaming came from it, hesitating. With my jaw set, I too hopped out of the truck and started heading for the house.

"Where are you going?" Ofelia asked me in a hiss. I ignored her and got into the house right as a deafening gunshot pierced my ears. There was a hush before I heard more screaming from farther away. I ran towards the sound and entered the living room, where Daniel was standing with a shotgun in hand, a dead body slumped against the sliding glass door, and a dead German Shepard laying next to it with its belly wide open.

"Oh my God," I said, taking in the scene. The screaming from outside had stopped. Daniel gave me a look, as if silently questioning as to why I was there. Travis and Liza entered through the sliding glass door with Chris between them, stepping over the dog with tight expressions on their faces. Right behind them came three people who could only have been Madison and her kids.

Madison looked vaguely familiar to me, before I recognized her from high school. Madison was Mrs. Clark, the guidance counselor. She and I had never spoken in school, but I remembered that she had been one of those teachers who liked to help her students. I took another look at Travis and realized that he was an English teacher I had never had, but had seen walking the halls. I had moved here with just half a year left in my senior year: there had never been time to meet more teachers than you had.

I didn't recognize Madison's kids, however. There was a girl who looked to be about seventeen and, at least right now, she looked disheveled and she had wide eyes filled with terror. I risked another glance at the dead man and dog and didn't blame her for that. Then there was Madison's son, who looked like a train wreck. His longish brown hair looked like it hadn't been washed in a few days and his clothes were baggy and stained.

The son looked at me from across the room and narrowed his eyes, finally seeming to realize that two strangers were standing in his living. "Who are you?" He asked in an accusatory tone. I blinked and glanced over at Travis, who had been trying to explain everything that had happened to Madison.

"Uh, I'm just waiting for my ride." I said. The boy frowned at me and I broke the awkward eye contact; I needed to get home fast.


	5. 5: Almost

It took a while, but Travis and Madison both ended up convincing me to send the night on their couch. Tomorrow, before they drove the two families out into the desert, they'd drop me off at home. I tried calling Mom again to update her on the plan, but the lines were busy. I resorted to sending a text before I got a message back telling me that the message had failed to send.

Madison gave me a pillow and blanket to use and I tried to settle in on the couch in the living room. The Salazar family were staying in Madison's daughter's room. The siblings were to share the boy's room. Liza and Chris were in a guest room, and Travis and Madison were in their own room.

I had learned that Madison's kid's names were Nick and Alicia. According to her, when she had given me the information about everyone, Nick was nineteen and Alicia was seventeen. This made Nick just a year younger than me. I tried to remember if I had ever seen him before, maybe at school, but I just couldn't.

It took hours for me to fall asleep. None of the clocks in the house were working, due to the power having been turned off earlier. The power was on now, but no one had reset the clocks. I used my phone to tell me the time, and that itself was becoming risky. The battery was getting closer and closer to being less than ten percent.

What was Mom doing right now? For all I knew, Mom was feeling better and was worried sick about me. Hopefully she'd look at her phone and listen to my voicemail, that way she'd get to know that I was safe. I was impatiently waiting for the morning so that I could go home.

I don't think it would've mattered if I had been able to sleep; I kept thinking about that man eating another man in the streets of Los Angeles, or the neighbor right next door who squeezed her face through the gap of the fence to try and reach out to anyone who came close enough. She had been snarling and gnashing her brown teeth. Were they both connected somehow? If so, what was the connection? There was that flu going around: that was more than likely to be it.

Around four o'clock in the morning, I finally managed to get some sleep. But my dreams were just as troubled as my waking thoughts. I kept dreaming about the people who were going crazy and eating other people. I woke with a jerk to see sunlight streaming in through the window.

"Great, you're awake,"

I looked up to see Nick standing there, arms crossed. I frowned at him, "Can I help you?"

"Mom told me to wake you up," Nick said, sitting down on the coffee table in front of my couch. I sat up so that I was sitting, bringing us to around the same eye contact. Nick was still watching me with narrowed eyes. "You said that your mom was sick, right?"

I hesitated, getting the feeling that Nick was thinking about the flu that was making people go nuts. I decided to tell him the truth, "She is sick, but it's not the flu that's been making everyone go crazy."

Nick's brown eyes widened, looking shocked that I had mentioned the crazy people. "You've seen them too?"

"Yeah," I said, lowering my voice to match his. We were suddenly leaning in so that anyone who walked in wouldn't be able to hear. "Last night during the riot, I saw a man eating another man while he was _still alive._ "

Nick shuddered, something that affected his whole body. "I saw it happen to one of my friends; she was, uh, eating someone else too. But at least he was dead."

"What are you two conspiring about?" Madison's voice rang out. Nick and I practically leapt away from each other. Madison was looking between the two of us, looking amused and suspicious at the same time.

"Nothing," Nick said quickly, sounding as guilty as a teenager could sound. I wanted to roll my eyes at him, but Madison beat me to it, rolling her eyes to the ceiling.

"We're leaving in a few minutes so be ready." Madison said. She gave us both another suspicious look before turning away to go finish getting ready to leave.

Nick looked from his departing mother and then back to me. "What're you gonna do when you get back to your mom? We're leaving for the desert, getting away from civilization."

"That sounds smart," I said. "I just might end up doing the same with Mom."

"If she's up for it," Nick said bluntly.

I narrowed my eyes at him, "I'll make sure she's up for it." I told him in a harder voice than I intended. Nick raised his eyebrows slightly at me, looking vaguely impressed. He got up and left while I straightened up my couch, folding the blanket and putting the pillow on top of the folded blanket.

Ten minutes later, we were all ready to go. Travis got into the truck with Liza and Chris; I got into the back of Madison's car wit her, Nick, and Alicia. The Salazars apparently had a relative coming to pick them up. As the car and truck pulled out of the driveway, I spotted Daniel watching us leave from the front window.

"How do we get to your house from here, Joanna?" Madison asked, heading for the exit to the neighborhood.

"Turn left when you get out." I told her. From beside me, Nick was staring out of the window moodily. He seemed a lot angrier than he had been when we had talked earlier. Madison got to the end of the neighborhood, her blinker on and pointing to the left, when we all saw a man get out of his car and walking towards his house-the house with the mad woman in the backyard.

"Patrick," Madison breathed. She sped the car to the curb and got out, leaving the engine on.

"Mom!" Alicia shouted after her before getting out herself. Nick and I glanced at each other once before getting out of the car too. As we charged after Madison, who had gone into the backyard after Patrick, Travis pulled the truck right behind the parked car.

I could still hear Madison shouting after Patrick. I practically crashed into the backyard with the others at my heels. We arrived just in time to see Patrick walking towards his wife, who looked even worse then ever, arms outstretched.

Before anyone could run forward and try to stop Patrick, to tell him that it was a bad idea, when Patrick's wife's head shot back as a bullet pierced her forehead. I covered my mouth with my hands as the mad woman fell dead to the ground, Patrick still holding her in his arms.

Soldiers came from the other side of the house, guns still up and ready to fire again. From beside me, Nick shot his hands up into the air in a gesture of surrender. One of the soldiers approached us and started to push us away from the scene of Patrick holding his dead wife.


	6. 6: Military Law

The military told us to go back into the neighborhood, and our group was told to go back to the house. My mind was instantly flooded with questions: Why did they kill the woman? What would happen to her husband now? Why were we being ushered back inside? When the hell was I able to go back home to my mother? But no matter how many times these questions were asked out loud, the military ignored each one.

I pulled Madison aside as more soldiers started to come down the street. Travis was talking to one by the mailbox. "Madison, I _have_ to get back home." I said, using my eyes to plead with Madison.

"I know, Joanna." She said, using her guidance counselor voice, making her sound very professional and calm. "Don't worry; we'll get you home soon." She started to march towards the military man Travis was talking to. I instantly followed after her while Alicia and Nick went back inside the house. Liza and Chris were watching from the front porch. Or Liza was watching; Chris was staring at all of the camouflage uniforms going from house to house.

The soldier's uniform said McLendon and his uniform only had one stripe on it. I had no idea what rank this made him. Madison stopped walking when she reached Travis's shoulder and I took the other side of her. McLendon blinked at the pair of us and I realized with a jolt how young he was. He must've enlisted right out of high school.

"Hi," Madison said. "We need to know when it'll be safe to leave the neighborhood."

I took a tiny step forward. "Please, sir; I need to get home to my mom."

McLendon stared at the both of us, looking hopelessly lost. "I'm so sorry, ma'am. But you can't leave just yet."

"Can you tell us when we can?" I asked a little sharper than I meant. Madison and Travis both looked at me.

"Not yet, ma'am." McLendon said. "If you tell me what neighborhood she's in, I can tell you whether or not she's in a secure area like this one."

I told him and the young soldier wrote down the neighborhood name before excusing himself to go find out. Travis reached around Madison and patted me on the shoulder. Madison gave me an encouraging nod before going back up to the house. Travis went after her and I saw that Liza and Chris had already disappeared. I was waiting by the mailbox for about a minute when McLendon came back.

"Your mother's neighborhood isn't on the list for quarantined neighborhoods." McLendon told me, barely meeting my eyes. "But she is close enough to another safe zone so a patrol will go to the house to see if they can pick her up." He added on quickly, seeing the look on my face. I looked away to the ground, the mounting sense of panic rising up. "Hey."

I looked back up at McLendon. His green eyes were sympathetic and he looked honestly sorry. "I'm sure that your mother will be fine. I'll let you know if we find out anything." He offered me a small smile and I smiled back. McLendon was nice enough, and so far he had given me more answers than any other soldier here. He nodded shortly at me before turning away to walk towards one of the massive trucks. I watched him leave for a second before going back to the house.

Already, Madison was taking charge and telling everyone where they'd be staying until the military let us leave. We got the same rooms as last time, and I was once again ordered to sleep on the couch. Madison tried to apologize, but I had just shrugged and told her that it was okay.

The only thing I was thinking about was getting back to Mom. By this time, she was bound to be stressed and worried out of her mind. I pulled out my phone to try and call her, but the phone died right as I touched the app to call people. I grit my teeth and stuffed the useless phone back into my purse. There wasn't any power left either, meaning I had no way of charging it.

If Mom called, I wouldn't be around to answer it.

Despite the fact that we still had food in the house, the military passed out rations anyway. Although when the woman sergeant gave us the rations, she said to go ahead and eat our perishable food that we already had first. "Just in case this lock down lasts a while."

I frowned. "Hopefully this lock down doesn't last more than a few days." I said to no one in particular. Nick heard me and his head snapped around to give me a look. I had just returned the stare when Nick trudged off without a word. I blinked and turned back to the front door, where the soldier was disappearing. Travis shut the door behind her and put the box of rations on the table.

"Well," Travis said with a sigh. "We might as well start saving all of this. Alicia, could you help me?" I looked over my shoulder and saw Alicia looking like she'd rather do anything else. But she got up from her seat on the couch and went into the kitchen with Travis. I watched as other members of the household started to disappear after that, leaving me standing there not sure what to do.

With nothing to do, I left the house through the front door, stepping back into the sunlight. The air was warm and dry, with a slight breeze that caused the top of the palm trees to sway. I looked farther down the street and saw the giant military trucks parking near the entrance of the neighborhood. Several men in greenish-gray uniforms were constructing a high, chain link fence. I spotted McLendon walking up to the front door of one of the houses farther down the street.

There was a slight roar sounding in the air and I looked up to see an airplane, flying low and unsteady. The longer I watched it, the more unsettled I felt. The plane was flying fast overhead, but it was also tipping around, as if shifting all of its weight from one side of the plane to the other. I watched the plane as it crossed over the blue sky and disappeared over the mountains father away.

When the plane disappeared, I got the sense of someone watching me. I took my eyes off of the sky and turned around, at first not seeing anyone. But then I spotted Nick standing at the corner of the house, looking between me and where that plane had gone to. Finally, he actually held my gaze and I had a feeling that he felt the same dread that I was.


	7. 7: Somewhere Out There

After several days of living in the Clark household with so many people, I felt like I was starting to lose my mind. No one matter where you went in the house, it wouldn't be long before someone else walked in. If you wanted any sort of privacy in the bathroom, you had to be extra sure that the door was locked otherwise someone would try and walk in.

To keep myself busy, I walked around the neighborhood countless times. I'd leave the house whenever it felt too crowded, and then just walk along the sidewalk until I was ready to go back inside. And, throughout my many walks, I got to see more of the neighborhood than I would've usually.

I met the McDonalds, a family that lived a few houses down from the Clarks. Their household only consisted of the parents and their three sons. Mr. McDonald was a former Air Force sergeant and from what I heard his young sons complaining about, he was trying to become buddies with the soldiers keeping us on lock down. According to the oldest McDonald son, a boy around thirteen named Robert, the whole family were supposed to go on a trip to Disneyland before this flu started.

I had shrugged when I he told me this. "Well, this lock down won't last for long. And it's Disneyland; it'll still be there when the flu's gone." Robert had shrugged too and then left me to my own devices and he chased after his younger brothers.

As I watched Robert look after his brothers all day over time went on, I couldn't help but think about Jared.

Where the hell was my brother anyway? He had left when I was fourteen, so by now he'd be twenty-four. I wanted to curse my brother for leaving, for abandoning me and Mom. It was kind of hard to imagine him now when I had no idea where he could be.

In my mind, he was still eighteen, talking to me about Lord of the Rings, watching horror films with me. I started kicking a rock along the sidewalk as I walked. I caught a glimpse of my old vans and smiled to myself. Jared used to always wear converse; he had about eight different pairs by the time he left. He probably got even more pairs as time went by.

The large military trucks were parked in a line as I passed. I spotted McLendon, wearing his uniform and looking over a clipboard. I looked at the single stripe on his arm and remembered what Travis had told me just last night.

Travis had pulled out a dusty book from his bookshelf and showed me the different military ranks and the stripes that went with them. Through this book, I had learned that McLendon was at the rank of private.

McLendon looked up and saw me looking at him. I offered him a small smile which he returned. When McLendon looked back down to his clipboard, I continued on my way inside the Clark household.

"Joanna!" Madison said the second I entered the house. I turned the corner of the hallway and entered the kitchen, where I spotted her washing the dishes by hand. "I'm recruiting you to drying these dishes."

"Did the power get cut off again?" I asked, joining her by the kitchen sink and grabbing a dripping wet plate from her along with a dry hand towel.

Madison sighed. "Yeah. I asked Sergeant Adams about it right when it happened, but he doesn't know anything."

"When'd it go off?"

"Around ten."

I frowned at that, trying to think about how long I had been out on my walk. Madison gave me a look from the side of her eye and said, "It should be around two o'clock right now." She handed me another dish and a glass.

There was a sudden splash and Madison's eyes snapped up to the window we were facing to look outside. I followed her gaze to the pool just in time to see Nick's head resurface. I looked away and got back to work drying the pile of dishes in front of me. Madison looked away from her unruly son and finished the last dirty dish.

"Would you finish drying these?" She asked, gesturing to the mount of wet dishes. I nodded in agreement and the older woman turned tail and started outside. I watched the outside window until Madison appeared, looking like she was pissed off at Nick for some reason. All I had gathered from the family over my prolonged stay here was that Nick was detoxing from some kind of drug and that he was being stubborn when it came to weaning off the drug.

I finished drying the dishes and left them all on the drying rack to continue the process. I folded up the hand towel and left it beside the drying rack before leaving the kitchen. One last glance outside the window told me that Madison was still having a heated conversation with Nick, who looked to be having none of it.

From the Salazars' room, I could hear another heated conversation going on, but this time it was in Spanish. I blinked at the door and continued through the house. Loud pop punk music was coming from the room that Alicia and Nick were sharing and there wasn't any sign of Travis, Chris, or Liza. Beginning to feel frustrated with my lack of options, I went back outside.

"Hey, Jojo!"

I jumped out of my skin and looked up to see Chris sitting on the roof with his legs dangling off. He waved a hand for me to get up there. "I gotta show you something." He said. After a second of looking around, I saw that he had gotten up there thanks to the car parked right next to the house: a perfect step stool to get to the roof.

Chris waited with a hint of impatience as I climbed onto the car and then the roof. The roof itself burned my hands as I crawled across the roof to get to him, so it was a massive relief when I got to sit down off of my exposed skin next to him.

"What's so important that I had to burn the skin off my hands?" I asked him. Chris pulled out his video camera and showed me the footage playing. At first, it was just a video diary of sorts with Chris explaining the situation of the neighborhood. I gave him a pointed look to which he hissed at me to keep watching. I did right as the video footage turned the camera around suddenly faced the buildings on the mountains opposite of us.

I blinked at the flickering light coming from one of the building's windows. It wasn't a spastic series of flashes either; there was definitely a pattern there. I looked up at the actual building to see that it was dark right now.

Chris was watching me with expectant eyes, waiting for a reaction. I asked, "What is it, d'you think?"

"I think there're people out there who need help." Chris said in a hushed voice. "The military are telling us that nothing's out there; that no one's out there. Clearly someone is out there." He went on about the flashing light and how the military were lying to the whole neighborhood, but I was only half paying attention by now.

If they were lying to us about others being out there, what else could they be lying about?


	8. 8: Hope

Rations were being passed the next day. I got into the line behind Ofelia and Alicia; because there were many people in our house, it took all three of us to haul it back. On top of that, each family got a limited amount of food and water rations for the day. We had three families in our house. Four different soldiers were handing out the rations and we ended up getting into lines with different ones.

Ofelia picked up the Salazar rations from the soldier she had a crush on. They smiled warmly at each other, their mutual attraction not really a secret. Alicia got the Clark ration from a much less friendly solider whose name I hadn't learned yet. The soldier had his eyes narrowed at everybody as if he expected someone to launch an attack right now. The soldier I got was nicer than Alicia's but he still managed to remain cool and aloof. My ration just consisted of a handful of hard packed beef and seven water bottles.

"These are getting smaller and smaller," I pointed out. The soldier frowned deeply at me.

"Just keep moving, kid," He said. I frowned at that-he looked to be no older than twenty two; a mere two years older than me. But I got out of line anyway and started to carry my rations back to the house. As I walked, I shifted through my small box at the food and water I'd been given. I shook my head to myself and walking into the Clark house and into the living room, where my nest on the couch had become a permanent apart of the room.

Nick was sitting on my couch when I got into the living room. I walked around the couch and sat on it to, leaving a couple of feet between me and Nick. He looked over at me and nodded a greeting. I looked down at his hands and saw that he was rolling a baseball around his hands.

"What's with the ball?" I asked.

"My hands need something to do." Nick said with a shrug. He nodded to the small box in my hands. "You got your rations already? What'd you get?"

"Uh, I got a few bottles of water, a handful of protein bars, and like three granola bars."

"Those ration boxes are getting worse and worse."

"Yeah they are." I said, putting the box onto the coffee table in front of us. "How long d'you think this quarantine is gonna last?"

Nick frowned deeply and shook his head, causing his greasy hair to shake a little. "It can't last for much longer. Those ration boxes are proof that those military guys are running out of food for us."

I shook my head and sat my box onto the coffee table. "Between the ration boxes and how they keep telling us that there's nothing out there, I'm starting to think that they're full of it."

Nick smirked at that and glanced at me. "What movie was it where the military took over and the people revolted?"

I frowned deeply. "You just narrowed millions of movies down to millions." Nick snorted and I continued, a smile starting to form onto my face. "I mean, there's a limitless amount of reasons in movies why the military could take over. _Seven Days in May_ is about a political military taking over."

"What the hell is _Seven Days in May_?" Nick asked, fighting back his laughter.

"It's a movie from nineteen-sixty-four about a plan for a hostile takeover of the American government."

"Sounds like a thriller," Nick commented.

"I remember watching it with my older brother," I said, looking up at the ceiling as if I was watching a flashback. "Jared and I used to watch _loads_ of movies together."

"What happened to him?"Nick asked. I sighed heavily and didn't answer for a long moment. Nick must've realized that he asked the wrong thing because he started to backtrack. "Look, I'm sorry if it's a sore subject-"

"No, it's fine, Nick." I cut him off. "You didn't know. Jared...Jared ran off right after he turned eighteen. He packed up in the middle of the night, took his cat, and left without a trace. I always imagined that he moved off to D.C; he loved history and some times talked about visiting the Smithsonian."

Nick was listening to me intently, as if this information could be important to him later on. I wasn't used to this kind of intense attention and shifted underneath his dark gaze. Nick caught on and turned away, looking instead at my dusty, hand-me-down Converse.

I thought back to my poor mom, sick and at home. Her fever had to have broken by now. For all I know, she could be completely healthy right now.

"I have to get home, Nick." I said quietly. Nick blinked and looked back at me, frowning hard. I looked back at him. "My mom is probably going out of her mind with worry right now. I haven't seen or heard anything from her since I went to work that morning. This quarantine has been going on for way too long."

Nick's dark eyes were back to staring me down. He scooted closer to me on the couch and before I could stand up or move away, he asked in a very quiet voice, "What if I told you that I knew a way out of here?"

"You _what_?" I asked, my voice rising involuntarily. Nick shushed me and waved his hands briefly. I looked at the doorways to the other rooms and no one was coming. After a moment of checking to see if the coast was clear, I turned to face Nick. "Sorry 'bout that. Why d'you ask that? D'you know a way out?"

"I think so," Nick whispered, beginning to look eager to tell me. "I haven't gone through it, but there's an old dumpster in the back of the neighborhood that can be moved aside."

"Where exactly is it?" I asked, surprised by the sound of my own voice becoming more intense to match his.

At that moment, Madison walked into the living room and halted when she saw me and Nick sitting close together. Nick jumped at the sight of his mother and his face turned slightly pink. I ran a hand through my hair as Madison walked farther into the living room. She was carrying a fresh stack of clothes.

"I brought you some fresh clothes of Alicia's, Joanna." Madison said. "I figured you'd want to get out of your work uniform for a long time."

I forced a smile onto my face, my heart still beating from the information Nick had given me. "Thank you, Madison. I'll get changed into these right away." I took the clothes from her and Madison gave me and Nick another suspicious glance before leaving. I turned back to Nick and opened my mouth to speak, but Nick waved his hands again, shutting me up.

We sat there in silence for a long moment before I heard Madison's footsteps finally starting to walk away. I blinked at the doorway as Nick started to talk again.

"I can take you out tonight," Nick said in a whisper. I had to sit back down on the couch to hear him. "After dinner you can say you're going on those walks around the neighborhood you usually do and I can sneak out. We'll go find your mom. You said your neighborhood is really close to here, right?"

"Right." I said, nodding. "You'd really do that for me, Nick?"

Nick nodded, giving me a slight smile. Without thinking, I rushed forward and hugged Nick. He hesitated for a moment before hugging me back, but even then I was already letting go. Nick's face was pink again. I felt my own face heat up with embarrassment and I grabbed the clothes that Madison had given me.

"I'm going to go change into these now." I said awkwardly. "Anything to get out of this stupid uniform." Nick smiled awkwardly right back and I hurried out of the living room, the back of my neck burning red.


	9. 9: Home

Eating dinner that night was like trying to eat sandpaper. I ate at the small table along with Chris, Alicia, Ofelia, and Nick. The five of us eating silently and the adults did around the same thing over at the bigger, more "adult" table. I was twenty years old and Ofelia was about twenty-two; what was up with putting us in the kids' table?

Nick was doing a good job of ignoring me throughout dinner. I tried to do the same but it was hard to do considering we'd be sneaking back to my house in a few hours.

Mom just had to wait until I got there. If she was feeling better, we may be able to bring her back with us. Yeah, there'd be questions from the military, but she was a survivor who needed help. Surely they wouldn't leave her behind when she needed help.

After dinner, Nick announced that he was going to bed. Once he was gone, I got my Converse on and left the house, pausing to tell Travis that I was going on my long walk when he asked.

"Okay, just be careful out there." Travis said with a smile. I nodded once and walked outside into the chill air. I started down the street. I made it to the street corner when I heard Nick hissing from the bushes.

"Get over here, Jo!" Nick hissed. I hurried towards him and he practically pulled me the rest of the way into the bushes. "We gotta keep our heads down before those military goons spot us."

"Lead the way to this loose dumpster," I said. Nick nodded once and started creeping away. I followed him closely, keeping about a foot between us.

The dumpster that Nick had told me about was at the back of the quarantined neighborhood. I started towards it, beginning to pull ahead of Nick, but he hurried to grabbed onto my elbow and yanked me back. I opened my mouth to let out a yelp of fright, but Nick slapped a hand over my mouth, silencing me. We stood at the corner of the house, hidden from sight, for a long moment until Nick released me.

"There's a patrol," Nick quietly explained. "We can't be seen, Jo."

I couldn't remember the last time someone had called me Jo, and I found myself smirking very slightly at the sound of the nickname. Nick checked around the corner of the house and looked back to me. "Coast is clear; let's go!"

Nick rushed to the dumpster and I followed on his heels. Nick stopped at the base of the dumpster and folded his fingers together before holding his hands out for me to step on. I put my foot in Nick's hand and he helped lift me up on top of the dumpster. I scrambled on top, every move I made being magnified by the empty dumpster. I looked over the edge and held out my hand for Nick to take. Nick grabbed my hand and I grit my teeth as I helped him on top of the dumpster. My upper body strength was terrible, but it was enough to help Nick up here. He did most of the work anyway.

There wasn't a fence on the other side of the dumpster, so Nick and I just had to jump down to the other side, and we were suddenly out. I paused to take in the sudden amount of free space when Nick grabbed my hand and started running, dragging me along with him. I ran too until Nick and I were neck and neck, allowing him to drop my hand while we ran into the safety of the neighborhood right next door.

Nick and I stopped running once we were about two blocks away from the quarantined neighborhood. I felt my lungs burning, my legs shaking slightly. But this was the first time I had run in a long time, and it felt amazing.

"Do they patrol this neighborhood?" I asked, panting.

Nick shrugged, a movement that caused his entire body to move. "No clue, Jo. It's all on you now. Lead the way to your neighborhood." I nodded, still breathing heavily, and started speed walking to where my neighborhood should be.

I lived only a couple miles away from the quarantined neighborhood, but it took about an hour and a half to get there. My neighborhood's streetlights were out, making the entire block look dark and dangerous. I swallowed hard, knowing that I was about to be home for the first time since leaving for work that day. Nick poked my shoulder, urging me forward. I sighed, finally gathering my breath before heading down the street and walking right up the lawn to my own house.

I tried opening the door first, but it was locked. I set my jaw as my heart hammered in my chest. I pulled out my house key from my back pocket and slowly unlocked the door. With Nick right behind me, I opened the door with a creak.

My house didn't look to be in a big state of disarray. Everything was right where I had left it. The blanket I always used to watch movies with was still thrown onto the couch, and so was the empty coffee mug I had forgotten to put away. I could smell the stinky trash can from here, but other than that, everything seemed to be in order. There was just one problem.

Mom's door was wide open and I could see from here that she wasn't there.

"Joanna?" Nick pressed from behind me. I inhaled deeply and started to move deeper into the house.

Nick followed me as we tiptoed through my dark house. I didn't find Mom in her room or the bathrooms, and my room was empty. Nick stopped and stared at the state of my bedroom with all of the posters and DVDs there. I looked at the same DVDs and frowned deeply. They were all worthless now…

There was a sudden pound coming from the back door. I got in front of Nick to lead the way, blinding rushing forward. I hurried to the back door and fell to my knees when I saw her.

The bite on Mom's arm had turned black. Her skin was tinged gray. Her eyes were bluish white with pin point black pupils. Her hair was a matted mess and her fingernails were pretty much yellow. Tears filled my eyes as I looked on at my Infected mother, as she pressed her hands against the glass door and gnashed her teeth at us, as if wanting nothing more than to tear into us.

"Oh, Jo," Nick said quietly as he shone the flashlight at Mom. She pounded her hands flat on the glass door, trying her hardest to get in. I felt Nick's hand grab onto my shoulder. "C'mon. We have to go back."

"I can't leave her like this," I whispered, feeling tears burn my eyes but nothing was falling yet.

"Well, we can't bring her with us." Nick said quietly, but with an intensity that was telling me to get my ass in gear. Nick crouched down beside me, wrapping an arm around my shoulders and shaking them gently. "We can't help her like this, Joanna. It's going to be day in a few hours. We have to go home."

I stared at Mom pounding her hands on the glass, and I couldn't help but think that this had been my home.

"I'm sorry, Mom," I whispered before standing up with shaking legs. Nick's arms shot out, just in case I fell over. I hurried to turn away from her, breathing heavily and feeling like my heart was about to explode. Nick was on my heels, following me as I went right out of the front door.

"Wait here, Jo," Nick said. "I'm gonna get some stuff." Before I could ask him what he could possibly get from my house, Nick was back inside. I turned away from the house and closed my eyes, covering my mouth with my hand.

There was a long pause, and I struggled to keep an eye out for any more Infected. My mom was Infected...

The bite must have caused it, I figured. The bite she got at work must've been from an Infected person. At least now I knew not to get bite by one of those things. I thought again to my poor Mom, slapping her hands against the glass door and I felt like throwing up.

Nick was back. He had gotten a backpack from somewhere in the house, and from the look of it, he had gotten a lot of stuff from the house shoved inside that backpack. I gave him a look and he shrugged.

"I figured that you won't want to wear the same clothes every day," Nick said. "Sorry, but I went through your drawers and just grabbed a bunch of clothes."

"You've been wearing those clothes for a while," I pointed out. "They make you look like a grandpa."

Nick laughed shortly and sat down beside me on the lawn. "I like my grandpa clothes. I'm gonna have to wash them soon though; I smell like cigar smoke and peppermint." Despite the overwhelming sadness I was feeling in my chest, Nick made me laugh at that. Nick looked at me with his brown eyes and quietly said, "I'm really sorry about your mom, Jojo."

I nodded as tears burned at my eyes. I sniffed loudly and rubbed at my stinging eyes. Nick hesitated before wrapping an unsure arm around my shoulders, hugging me briefly. I let out a dry sob and buried my face in my hands. Nick made a small shushing noise and started rubbing my arm with his hand.

We sat on my front lawn for a long time, the streetlights out and the half moon disappearing every few minutes behind dark clouds.

After what felt like an hour of sitting there on my front lawn, I shrugged Nick's arm off of my shoulder and stood up. Nick stood up right after me and grabbed the backpack that I now recognized as the one I had used for high school. He tossed it onto his shoulder and we started to walk back down the dark neighborhood and back towards the quarantined zone.


	10. 10: Protectiveness

Nick and I snuck back inside the sleeping house. Nick took my backpack into the living room and hid it behind pillows, so that no one else in the house would notice this new bag full of fresh clothes. I sat down on the couch as he did this and Nick gave me a long look once he started to head back to his own room.

"I'm really sorry, Jo," Nick told me quietly.

"So am I, Nick," I said. Nick smiled sadly at me before going down the hallway to his room. I waited until he was gone before laying down on the couch, still wearing my clothes and shoes, and buried my face into a pillow, stifling the sounds of my own crying.

My poor mom, how long had she been sick before she died? That bite had acted fast, and I've been stuck here in the quarantine for about ten days now. I buried my face harder into the pillow, tightening my hands so hard that they started to hurt.

I must've fallen asleep some time during the night, because the next thing I remembered, I was waking up with sunlight streaming in through the living room windows. What time was it? I started to move only to find a heavy blanket on top of me. I frowned at it, my temple pounding painfully. Someone must've given it to me earlier this morning, or even late last night.

I wanted nothing more than to stay laying on this couch all day, but I knew that I would have a job to do today. Madison would come along to wake me up soon enough. I sat up, pushing the blanket off of me, and rubbed my face hard. I couldn't sit here all day. Madison wouldn't want that, those military guys wouldn't stand for that, and Mom...Mom would want me to try and push on.

"There's no use in sitting around moping, Jojo," Mom had told me once. I had been sprawled out on our couch, crying over some stupid boy for some stupid reason. Mom had sat me up and started wiping those tears away, looking me in the eye while she told me that crying over boys just wasn't worth it.

This wasn't exactly "crying over boys" material, but Mom would need me to keep moving. Especially since people would flip if they found out that Nick and I left the quarantine when we weren't supposed to.

I got up and dressed in the bathroom. It felt better to be wearing my own clothes again, but a sudden thought entered my mind. What if someone asked where I got the new clothes? I looked down to the clothes I was wearing: dark skinny jeans, a black tee shirt with the _Twilight Zone_ 's logo on the front in blue letters. This didn't exactly looked like something Alicia, or even Ofelia would wear. But I couldn't exactly go back to Alicia's clothes; Nick had brought my own stuff for me for a reason so I didn't have to constantly wear his sister's clothes. I figured that there wasn't really anything I could do, so I left the bathroom and went into the kitchen.

Liza was in there, washing some dirty rags in the sink. I looked at what she was doing and saw that the rags she was washing were soaked in what looked like vomit and pus. I wrinkled my nose as Liza looked over her shoulder at me and gave me a tired smile that didn't reach her eyes.

"Morning, Joanna," Liza greeted me.

"How's Griselda doing?" I asked.

Liza sighed and shrugged. "I swear that her leg is getting worse. There's an infection that's setting in and we don't have the penicillin needed to chase it off."

A light bulb went over my head and I cursed myself for not going into Mom's room last night. "My mom might have penicillin at my house." I said quietly. Liza looked at me from the corner of her eye. I digressed, "I told you that my mom was a full time nurse. She always kept a medicine bag in her room."

Liza's eyes lit up for a moment before the light went out. "Well, unless the military loosens up a bit, I don't think anyone's gonna be able to go and get it. Even though we really need it."

I left the kitchen after that and headed outside. What were the odds of going home again tonight to get the medicine that Liza needed for Griselda?

Once outside the bright, L.A sunshine warmed my skin and I paused for a long moment, just taking the opportunity to breathe in the fresh air. I couldn't help but think about my mom, and what must've been going through her head right before she died. She had left the house to go into the backyard; maybe she had longed for the fresh air too.

That's what had to have happened, I decided. That's what I was going to believe. That Mom had longed for the fresh air outside, and she had spent her last moments out there getting just that.

"Joanna!"

I turned around to see Madison leaving the house and heading towards me. I started to smile at her in greeting, but she wasn't smiling. She didn't look that happy to see me, to be honest. I blinked at her as she got closer and she stopped right at my side.

"What is it, Madison?" I asked her.

"I want you to be honest with me, Joanna," Madison started slowly. "Where did you and Nick go last night?"

I blinked and tried my hardest to keep my face looking blank and confused. "What d'you mean? Nick and I didn't go anywhere last night."

Madison frowned deeply. "Really? Because you're walk lasted even longer than usual. And Nick wasn't in his bed last night, even though he said he was going to sleep early. It's not hard to put two and two together, Joanna."

I didn't say anything, not willing to snitch on my adventure with Nick last night. Madison heaved a sigh and shook her head at me. "Joanna, I worked in a high school for crying out loud. I know when teenagers are doing something they're not supposed to be doing." She paused, looking very uncomfortable. "Look, if the two of you went off to have sex, then you should at least be using protection."

"What?" I shrieked, my voice going up about three octaves. Madison blinked in surprise at me and took a tiny step back. I shook myself and backtracked, all while feeling my face start to burn. "Madison, Nick and I haven't ever done that. No, no." I paused, thinking about my words before sighing too. "You want to know where we were last night? I got upset about my mom. You know, with the whole not seeing her in so long. Nick found me and he helped me through it."

Madison was watching my face impassively, as if she was trying to figure out if she could believe me or not. But finally, she nodded and sighed. "Okay then. Well, if you ever want to talk to somebody else, someone who may have a better opinion about loss, then you can always come to me, Joanna."

I couldn't help but frown at her. "Do you not want me hanging out with Nick?"

"I didn't say that," Madison said vaguely. Before I could say anything else, she turned away and walked back towards the house. I watched her go with a frown, feeling as if this was just going to be the beginning.

* * *

 **Important A/N: I'm leaving for basic military training for the U.S Air Force soon. So there won't be an update a day until I'm out of basic and able to sit down again and write as much as I used to. Until then, thanks for reading and being the best readers I could've ever asked for.**

 **-Katie**


	11. 11: Risky Business

A handful of neighborhood kids played some kind of game that involved bouncing a ball on the sidewalk. I watched them for a while, until their mom came out and ordered them all in for lunch. My jaw tightened at the sight of them following their mom for whatever food she had made for them and I turned away from the scene.

Mom used to make toasted bologna sandwiches for me back when I was in elementary and middle school. Jared had once complained about how he didn't get those sandwiches, and suddenly he was getting them almost every day for lunch until he grew sick of them and begged Mom to stop making him lunch. I smiled softly at the memory that now left a bitter taste in my mouth.

I was trying to avoid the house as much as possible. Griselda was in a lot of pain, and with Liza's limited medical supplies, she was barely getting half of what she needed. Daniel was starting to get even more antsy, staying beside his wife and only leaving her for a few minutes at a time. Ofelia seemed to be avoiding the house just as I was, but she was hanging out with her soldier friend.

I kept thinking about that penicillin Mom would have in her room, the cabinets in the kitchen. She literally had a small red box with a white cross on it completely stuffed with all kinds of medical supplies. If Nick and I had been able to sneak out and grab some clothes, surely I'd be able to sneak out and grab this medicine.

Nick would probably want to come along, I thought. But he was nowhere to be found right now, and I wasn't about to ask around to see where he was in case Madison heard about it. He remained missing for most the day and when he did finally come home, he disappeared into his room and refused to come out. I was concerned for him, seeing that he had seemed distracted when he got back.

As soon as it was dark enough, I snuck out of the house again, heading straight for the dumpster where Nick and I had snuck out of before. A military truck drove past and I hurried to duck behind one of the houses, the dumpster just a few feet away.

The truck's headlights shone brightly on the dumpster for a second before turning away down the street. I waited until the jeep was far enough away before running quickly to the dumpster. I bounced on my feet for a second before hauling myself on top of the dumpster, my arms aching in protest. I momentarily cursed myself for not being in a better shape and for sneaking popcorn from the theater.

I felt safer once I was over the fence. From that point on, I knew where to go to get home and I started a light jog towards my neighborhood. There weren't any Infected in sight, so I counted that as a very good thing.

My neighborhood was just as dark as it had been last night. I shuddered at the overwhelming darkness and kept speed walking until I was at my house. The door was unlocked from last night and I walked in without hesitation. This time, I was determined to avoid the back door where I knew my Mom was.

Mom had always put her medical supplies in the kitchen cabinets and in her room. I went to the kitchen first, opening the right ones and grabbing the small red box with a white cross on it. Inside there was a massive amount of medicine, ranging from bandages to pain killers to actual penicillin. I went into Mom's room, pausing at the doorway and looking around at the messy way she had had before she had been bitten.

By the time I had finished taking the medicine, the moon was closer to the center of the sky. I walked back outside and started back towards the quarantine, not wanting to show up too late. As I passed the gate into my backyard, I heard the unmistakable sounds of Mom slapping her hands against the wooden fence.

Tears filled my eyes and I hurried away before they could fall.

I was almost to the quarantine when I saw someone walking down the street. I stopped walking and put my hands up, even with my head. It had to have been a soldier, I figured. But then I saw the way the figure was walking, slow and clumsy. A deep chill went down my spine and I took several steps back as the Infected man got closer.

The Infected opened its mouth wide and snarled horribly, the noise sounding like it came from a deep and forgotten part of his throat. An image of my mom came to my mind and I backed away even faster.

"Stay back," I said. The Infected didn't understand and snarled again, reaching his arms out as if he just wanted a hug. My back thumped against a lamp post. "Crap!" I yelped out of fright. How far away was the quarantine, maybe I could make a run for the dumpster fence?

The Infected man was within reach now and I let out a loud scream when his cold hands grabbed onto my arms. The Infected man tried pulling me forward, its mouth wide and its teeth dark gray. I locked my arms, working hard to keep him at arm's length. I let out another cry as my arms started shaking with the effort.

The Infected man's rotting mouth was just a few inches from my face when his head was violently snapped back as a bullet entered his head.

I screamed again as the Infected man fell limp to the ground with a sickening thud. I sunk down until I was sitting, and I could feel my body shaking violently. Almost as soon as I sat down, three soldiers from the quarantine approached me. One of them kept his gun trained on the dead Infected man. The other two kept their guns trained on me.

My hands shot back up to above my head and they were shaking horribly. "I'm sorry," I started to say. "Griselda needs medicine; I went and got her some-"

"Quiet!" One of them said. I shut my mouth firmly and nodded once, eager to comply. Hopefully they'd just give me a slap on the wrist and they would just send me back into the quarantined zone.

"What d'we do with her, sir?" Another soldier asked, keeping his gun on the Infected man.

"Take her to the Church." Their commanding officer said. "She's been touched by an Infected; who knows what'll happen now." They talked about me as if I wasn't right there. I blinked as the commanding officer looked down to me. "Did it scratch you?"

"What?" I asked. "No, no, I don't think so."

The commanding officer looked to his two soldiers. "Take her to the Church anyway. She broke quarantine and we can't risk her bringing anything inside." With that said, he turned away and started to walk away. The two officer lowered their weapons and flanked me, grabbing me roughly by the arms and hauling me to my feet.

"Wait a second," I started. "Wait! Griselda needs this medicine! You have to take it to her!"

"Shut up." One of them said, forcing my arms behind my back and putting handcuffs on. The other soldier took the medicine bag from me and he held onto it. I could only assume that he'd take it to someone who could help Griselda get better. I didn't have much of a choice before they started hauling me away from the quarantine's fence.


	12. 12: The Pen

"I've gotta take a piss." The man a few pens down said, struggling to get the soldier's attention. "I've been holdin' this in for almost three hours, can you let me go to the bathroom?"

"Sir, there is a bucket in the corner-" The soldier started.

"It's a _bucket_!" The man shouted, pointing at the said bucket.

My chin was resting on my knees, watching the exchange happen. There was five other people in this chain linked pen I was in, and they all were trying not to come in contact with each other. It was pretty easy to follow their lead and just sit with my back against the chain linked fence. I had no idea why we were all here at the community college, and none of the soldiers guarding us were answering any of our questions.

One of the men in my pen was a tall black man wearing a suit who was pacing the length of the pen slowly, looking around at the other pens and the soldiers moving between those pens. He hadn't spoken yet, and he was keeping his hands tucked into his pockets, as he observed the large room filled with dozens of these tall chained link fences. At some point he caught me watching him and he had held my gaze evenly until I looked back down to the toes of my shoes.

"You can't keep treating us like animals!" A woman yelled from a few pens down. I looked up at the sound of her voice and blinked at her, where she was pressing herself against the chain linked fence, screaming at the two soldiers standing nearby.

"Yelling and screaming won't help any of our situations." The man in the suit said from somewhere nearby. I looked up and nearly jumped out of my skin to see him standing beside me, leaning against the fence there. "You seem like the quiet type. But being still and quiet also isn't the way to getting out of here."

"What d'you want?" I asked. The man arched his brow at me and a small smile crept across his face.

"What do any of us want?" He asked instead of answering. He crouched down, putting his weight on his heels. "Look around and take a good long look at the people around us, sweetie. What are you seeing?"

I couldn't tell if this was some sort of trick or not. But I looked around at the four others in the pen with us. I nodded to an older woman weeping in the corner. "She's crying her eyes out. That guy tried to climb the fence about an hour ago." I nodded over to the man in his early thirties who as freshly bruised from being poked down by the soldiers. "The other two haven't done a lot."

The man snorted. "That's where you're wrong, sweetie. That man in the nearby corner, he's been crying over a photo of his wife and children for a long while now. And the other man, see his lips moving? He's been mouthing prayers and psalms to himself ever since I got in here. You read people, you see glimpses of who they are in a time of crisis. We are officially living in a time of crisis, so it's time to figure out who's useful or not. So far, none of these people have proved very useful."

I turned my face to fully look at him. "These people are scared." I pointed out.

"We're all scared." He retorted. "But it seems to me, that when people are scared that's when they prove whether or not they can be useful. They can freeze or start crying or start praying to whatever God they believe in. Those who keep a level head when they're scared, they're the ones you need to keep close to you in these trying times."

He stuck one hand out for me to shake. I blinked before actually grabbing his hand and shaking it once. The man nodded once to me. "Victor Strand."

"Joanna." I replied, letting go of his hand. I frowned at him. "Does this mean I'm useful?"

"I'm still deciding on that, Joanna." Strand said evenly. "Right now you've proven to have a level head and you're exceptionally observant. You can still be proven useful."

"Gee, thanks," I muttered, causing Strand to smirk before standing back up and walking back to the fence, resuming his pacing.

There was a rather large clock on the wall, and I spent a good long time watching the hands of the clock inch slowly across its white face. Strand continued to move around to every person in the pen and talk quietly to them, but whatever they said back apparently wasn't that interesting because he kept walking away from them. At some point I must've dozed off, because suddenly I was jerked awake by the sudden sounds of struggling.

I looked outside of my pen and I leapt to my feet when I saw two soldiers hauling Nick between them.

"Nick!" I shouted, rushing to the chained link fence. Nick jolted when he heard my voice and he craned himself around until his dark eyes met mine.

"Jo!" Nick shouted right back. He tried wrestling against the two soldiers but they were holding him too tightly for him to try and fight back.

Strand was at my shoulder in an instant. "You know that boy?" He asked in that rapid way of his.

"He's my friend." I said, watching helplessly as the soldiers started dragging Nick towards another pen farther away from me and Strand.

"Is he useful in the way we discussed?" Strand asked.

I nodded feverishly. "Yeah!"

Strand looked away from Nick and to the commanding officer who was watching the scene. Strand whistled once, sharply, and the commanding officer glared at him before coming over. "I think it'd be in that boy's best interest if he was in this particular enclosed area."

"Why the hell would I do that?" The officer asked. I was barely paying attention to their conversation; the two soldiers were struggling to unlock the pen farthest from ours.

Strand pulled a heavy looking rung off his right ring finger and held it out for the officer to take. "I repeat, I think it's in that boy's best interest if he's in this particular enclosed area. Being close with friends helps boost morale, does it not?"

The officer seemed to hesitate before taking the ring from Strand's fingers. He marched away, barking, "Don't put him there! Bring him this way."

Strand looked down at me. "Your friend had better be useful, Joanna. That was a eight hundred dollar ring." He paused and then shrugged. "Not that that matters much anymore. That officer believes it still matters."

I finally took notice of the way the officer carried himself; back completely straight and his pockets looked heavy with something. Just by judging the way his uniform was finely pressed and the way he had taken Strand's ring with barely any conflict, he seemed to believe that money was still a thing. Strand didn't seem to believe that, seeing how willingly he gave away that eight hundred dollar ring.

The two soldiers brought Nick back and Strand lightly grabbed onto my shoulder and we took several steps back away from the pen's door. The officer unlocked the door for them and they promptly tossed Nick into the pen.

Nick stumbled, barely stopping himself from landing hard on his face. Once he got himself steady on his feet, he looked over at me and quickly closed the gap between us and brought me into an extremely tight hug. I embraced him back, my nose being pressed into his grandpa clothes. Underneath the distinct smell of body odor and sweat, there was no mistaking the scent of peppermint and cigar smoke.

The soldiers shook their heads and locked the gate behind Nick, who was hugging me as tight as he could. When he finally stopped hugging me, he grabbed onto my shoulders and shook them slightly.

"What the hell happened to you?" He asked. "You didn't come back from your walk and none of those shoulders were telling us what happened. I was-we were worried sick and freaking out."

I quickly explained everything that had happened, and by the time I was finished, Nick was staring at me with one eyebrow raised high. "You're so freaking stupid." He said. He hugged me again. "Thank God you're okay, though." I hugged him back again, smiling into his shoulder.


	13. 13: Flight

Nick slumped against the fence a little while after he got in. I had known about his drug problem, but when he told me he had snuck some during the quarantine, I slapped his arm. "What were you thinking taking drugs at a time like this?" I asked. Nick had blinked at me and looked slightly alarmed.

"Says the girl who skipped quarantine and got herself caught!" Nick retorted.

I rolled my eyes. "I'm not the one detoxing right now, Nick." He didn't say anything in response to that, just looked up at me and sighed heavily.

Strand continued to pace the length of the pen, stopping occasionally to talk to one person or another. I remembered what he said about people being useful or not in this situation, and I hoped that when he did launch his escape plan, he'd decide to bring me and Nick along with him. He seemed like he would, considering the fact that he had given up a ring just to get Nick put into this pen.

I wished I could tell what time it was, but there weren't any windows in this stuffy room. And the heat of the room was getting worse. I could feel sweat beading on my forehead and starting to run down the side of my face. I wiped more sweat off my brow before looking over to Nick. He was sweating worse than I was, and right now he looked too tired to wipe it off his face.

A soldier walked by us from the other side of the pen and I stood up, getting as close to him as I possibly could with a fence between us. "Excuse me?" I asked him, putting both hands on the fence, instantly wrapping my fingers through the links.

"Remove your hands from the fence, ma'am." The soldier snapped before making a move to continue on. I walked along with him, the fence still separating us.

"I need to know what time it is." I told him, stopping again and instinctively putting my hands on the fence-

"Ma'am!" The solider snapped, louder this time. "Remove your hands!"

"What's the matter with my hands?" I asked without thinking. I clearly didn't move my fingers fast enough because the soldier knocked the butt of his rifle really close to my hands and into the chain linked fence, making it rattle loudly and causing me to drop my hands from the fence. The solider let out one huff of amusement before continuing on, leaving me behind.

Strand was suddenly standing right beside me. "What did you think would be accomplished by antagonizing him?" He asked.

"I wasn't antagonizing him!" I insisted. Strand gave me a pointed look but said nothing in response. I looked up at him with a frown. "Have you thought up a plan to get us out of here yet?"

"Yes I have." Strand said bluntly but he didn't bother to explain. I waited for a minute to explain but Strand was already walking away, holding his hands on his hips and looking out at the soldiers outside the fence frowning.

What was it that Strand had said earlier? That people who kept a level head and observed their surroundings were useful? I blinked again and looked around at the soldiers. And then I saw.

Something was different. The soldiers were practically running back and forth, their faces looking concerned and sort of scared looking. I caught glimpses of some of the nurses from the other rooms, looking even more nervous than the soldiers. I tried to catch a glimpse of Liza, who was supposedly here according to Nick. But I didn't see her. I looked around again and hurried over to Strand, walking right past Nick who was keeping his eyes closed tight.

"What do you think is happening with the soldiers?" I asked Strand the second I was at his side.

"I think the chaos is beginning to knock on their door." Strand said vaguely. "And if it's at their door, it's knocking at our door as well. Give me a few minutes, Joanna."

I nodded once and started to walk away from him as more soldiers hurried past our pen. I watched them go, my face frowning hard. What the hell was happening out there? I went back to the fence and put my hands on it, not thinking about the soldier who had knocked my hands off earlier.

My heart leapt into my throat when I recognized McLendon the soldier enter the room.

"McLendon!" I screamed out. The young man's eyes shot towards me and he ran to me, the chain link fence staying between us.

"How the hell?" He started, but then his eyes widened. "You broke quarantine? Are you _crazy_?"

"Yes, I'm an idiot!" I quickly agreed with him, becoming aware that something horribly wrong was going on if McLendon looked this freaked out. "Can you get us outta here?"

McLendon nodded hurriedly and he dashed off to the desk that I knew held the keys to all the chain linked fences. This got everyone's attention and suddenly everyone was screaming at McLendon to let them out. Nick managed to stand up and he and Strand were on either side of me as McLendon took his time to find the right key for our fence.

The screams got louder as McLendon successfully unlocked out pen. He gave the other pens a long look as Strand led the way out of the pen, as if he didn't care if Nick and I followed or not. Nick and I managed to keep up, passing McLendon on the way out. McLendon looked at me leaving and then back to the other pens. I kept walking, glancing over my shoulder at my friend before continuing after Strand. Was McLendon going to come with us or...?

McLendon ran after us after throwing the ring of keys into the closest closed pen. The constant screaming of the people in the pens got louder as we left.

"I know how we can get out of here," McLendon said, moving until he was at the front of our small group. I blinked at him, seeing the nervousness and fear melt away from him. I remember thinking about how young he seemed back at the quarantine, how this fact had seemed obvious to me. Now I see that he was a soldier, and a pretty good one by the way he was taking charge of the situation.

McLendon led us down hallways and into a large room, quickly explaining that our exit was across the room and down that hall. The only issue was that this large room was filled with Infected.

"Where they'd come from?" Nick asked, looking terrified. McLendon didn't answer and the look of fear on his face told us that he didn't know they had been in here.

"Get to the hallway!" McLendon ordered as the Infected finally noticed us. "Your exit's right beyond that!" He whipped out the gun holstered on his hip and he began to fire into the crowd of Infected.

Strand didn't need to be told twice and he pelted to the hallway mentioned. Nick and I started after him, the roar of the Infected and gunfire becoming deafening. But then I heard the gunfire begin to slow down.

I halted and turned around to see the Infected begin to surround McLendon; there were too many of them for him to fight off by himself...

"Run, Joanna!" McLendon screamed, firing his gun at the oncoming Infected. I took a few steps back but I froze in place when I saw him run out of bullets. Right as he reached to his belt for another clip of bullets, an Infected woman grabbed onto his shoulders and sunk her teeth into his throat.

My screams mingled with McLendon's as I watched my friend get bit by two other Infected. The monsters dragged him to the ground and I saw them pulling handfuls of red up into their mouths.

"Jo!"

I turned around and ran to Nick's voice. He grabbed my hand as soon as I was within reach and we bolted away from McLendon's body and the gathering crowd of Infected.

The hallway that McLendon and Strand had led us to led to a set of double doors. Strand made it there first and ran into the doors hard. Nick and I skidded to a halt right behind him as we realized that the double doors were locked.

Meanwhile the snarls of the Infected was getting louder.

The only other door was also locked, and the Infected were actually in the hall now. My heart was pounding painfully in my chest and I felt tears begin to burn at my eyes. My breath was coming out in gasps as I heard Nick screaming at someone on the other side of the door. The Infected were coming closer, their eyes white and gray and their hands already reaching out to rip us to shreds-

"Joanna!" Travis's voice cut through the air and I felt strong hands grab onto my arm, yanking me backwards and into the previously locked hallway. Strand and Salazar launched forward and made quick work barricading the double doors just in time for the Infected to reach the doors.

"We can't stay here long!" Madison's voice came. I blinked at started to get a grip of my surroundings, finally realizing that I was with my group again.

Strand stepped away from the barricaded double doors, straightening his suit and meeting Madison's gaze. "I have a place we can go."


End file.
